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Thursday, October 15, 2020

Grow Your Business By Launching A Podcast. These Master Classes Show You How

The podcast industry continues to balloon and shows no signs of stopping. More than one-third of Americans over age 12 consume podcasts regularly, and big companies like Spotify and Pandora are changing their platforms to accommodate more listeners.

This is a perfect opportunity for entrepreneurs and professionals to leverage podcasts for business growth. The medium allows you to showcase your expertise, establish thought leadership, and create revenue streams. But launching a podcast is easier said than done, considering how a lot goes into the process.

The Start-to-Finish Guide to Launching a Successful Podcast Bundle offers a step-by-step guide on creating your very own podcast. Learn everything from hashing out the initial idea all the way down to going live. Comprised of nine information-rich courses, it has lessons on presenting, speaking, audio mixing, and more from top-rated instructors. Right now, it’s on sale for $44.99.

In this nine-pronged learning package, you’ll get a complete rundown of what running a podcast entails. You’ll get a technical walk-through of which equipment you should use. Furthermore, you will learn how to create a recording set-up and how to mix voice to production standards. Aside from the technicalities, there are also lessons on how to speak confidently, interview different guests, structure your podcast for better conversion rates, and come up with unique content that will resonate with your audience. To top it all off, you’ll also get marketing tips that can help grow your listener base and attract advertisers.

Podcasting is a perfect opportunity to grow your business. Make sure yours is up to snuff with the Start-to-Finish Guide to Launching a Successful Podcast Bundle, currently on sale for $44.99.

 


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How Covid-19 hit New York's African community

The pandemic, and the associated economic fallout, is tough on Harlem's African community.

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End Sars: Nigerian army warning amid anti-police brutality protests

The army warned "subversive elements and trouble makers" to desist at protests against police brutality.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2020

How many votes will be counted after election night?

This is part 1 of a two-part MIT News series on voting research and the 2020 election.

When you watch election returns on Nov. 3, keep this in mind: In some U.S. states, it will take days to count all the ballots, and the winner might only be clear later, rather than sooner.

Four straight U.S. presidential elections have featured a “blue shift,” in which the post-Election Day ballot count helped the Democratic Party candidate gain ground on the Republican nominee. And the GOP’s Richard Nixon twice enjoyed a “red shift” from post-Election Day vote counting.

A study co-authored by an MIT political scientist quantifies this effect by state, analyzes its causes, and shows why the 2020 election might indeed be decided after Nov. 3.

“It’s one of the reasons people are bracing for a bit of a rocky ride after the polls close,” says Charles Stewart, a professor in MIT’s Department of Political Science and co-author of a paper detailing the study’s results.

As the study shows, a growing share of votes since 1992 have been counted after Election Day; in 2016, it was about 10 percent of all votes. The use of provisional ballots and absentee ballots is the leading driver of this trend. Last time out, Hillary Clinton’s national popular-vote margin increased by 0.30 percentage points due to votes counted after Election Day.

Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic seems likely to generate more absentee voting than ever. These factors have led many political commentators to speculate that President Donald Trump, who has been mostly critical of mail-in voting, might verbally claim victory on election night despite an unfinished vote count. This may especially be relevant to Pennsylvania and Michigan, which have little or no advance counting of mail-in ballots.

However, Stewart notes, we do not know what will unfold. Fully 42 states start counting absentee ballots before Election Day, and if voters return mail-in ballots unusually quickly, some absentee vote counts might wrap up routinely. In that case, “There could be more [issues] with Election Day voting than mail voting,” Stewart says.

Additionally, Stewart says, if Democrats are particularly focused on sending in absentee ballots early, “We could have a red shift in 2020 in some of these states, if Democratic ballots [have] already been scanned and preloaded, and if Republican ballots are the last ones, which will get counted on Wednesday or Thursday.”

The paper, “Explaining the Blue Shift in Election Canvassing,” is co-authored by Stewart, the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT, and Edward Foley, the Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law, and director of the election law program at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. It appeared this summer in the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy.

Why more votes are counted later …

To conduct the research, Foley and Stewart examined all presidential elections since 1948. First, to gain an overall sense of the size of the post-Election Day vote count, they compared the vote tabulations appearing in The New York Times on the Thursday after every Election Day with the eventual vote totals (using Dave Leip’s Election Atlas as the source for final results).

From 1948 through 1956, the number of votes counted after Election Day was higher than it is now, above 10 percent, which the researchers attribute to the slower forms of communication (and thus vote reporting) of the time. That number generally stayed under 5 percent for a few decades but ticked up in 1992 and again starting in 2004.

Two main factors likely account for this growth: greater use of provisional ballots and more mail-in voting (also known as absentee voting). In the first case, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 2002, modernized voting equipment and required all states to issue provisional ballots to voters.

Provisional ballots allow people whose registration is challenged at the polls to vote anyway; their ballot is evaluated again after Election Day. Prior to 2002, only half of the states used provisional ballots. In 2016, about 2.5 million provisional ballots were cast; about 1.7 million of those were fully or partially counted, with around 800,000 provisional ballots being rejected.

At the same time, voting by mail has grown in popularity. Using the federal Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) and U.S. Census Bureau data, Foley and Stewart conclude in their paper that “there is a correlation between the number of provisional and mail ballots that must be processed by a state’s election officials and the number of overtime votes” — that is, those counted after Election Day.

“The reforms after the 2000 election routinized some of these dynamics,” Stewart says, while state-level changes “removed [the need for] excuses for voting by mail.”

… and why has the shift been blue?

Still, if an increasing number of votes are counted after Election Day, why has that boosted the Democratic Party candidate? The post-Election Day vote count generated a 0.12 percentage point shift in the national popular vote in favor of John Kerry in 2004, a 0.35 point shift for Barack Obama in 2008, and a 0.39 point shift for Obama in 2012, before Clinton’s 0.30 point gain in 2016.

One explanation, which Foley and Stewart detail in the paper, is that Democrats are more likely to cast provisional ballots. In the Cooperative Congressional Election Study of 2016, they note, 60.1 percent of respondents who said they had cast a provisional ballot identified as Democrats, whereas only 47.8 percent of those who did not cast provisional ballots identified as Democrats.

Digging into state-level data, the scholars find the same pattern. In North Carolina, which has the most extensive public data about provisional ballots of any state, 39 percent of voters casting a provisional ballot in 2016 were Democrats, although just 34.6 percent of the state electorate consisted of Democrats.

But why are Democrats casting more provisional ballots in the first place? One reason, the scholars suggest, is that new voter registrations since 2000 have tended to favor the Democratic Party; many challenges that lead to provisional ballots being cast are due to either new voter registration records that not reflected at the polls, or changes of address.

Stewart suggests another reason, though, which stems from the campaign side of politics.

“Starting in 2008, I think something else happened,” he says. “The Obama campaign recognized the strategic opportunity in some states to lock down the Democratic vote early, so that the election-day get-out-the-vote effort could be more [focused] and less costly. And ever since then Democratic [Party] strategists, more so than Republican [Party] strategists, have looked to mail balloting as a way of getting their votes in.”

Certainly the blue shift has not been constant. Nixon enjoyed a red shift of 0.20 percentage points in 1960, while narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and then a smaller red shift while winning in 1968.

Eyes on the Midwest

As Foley and Stewart also detail in the paper, states vary widely in how quickly they process votes. Florida starts counting absentee votes 22 days before the election. Conversely, Pennsylvania and Michigan, key states Trump won narrowly in 2016, have just implemented no-excuses absentee voting — but Pennsylvania will not start processing mail-in ballots until Election Day. Michigan will start processing mail-in ballots — taking them out of their envelopes, marking names off the voter list, and more — the day before the election and will feed them into vote-scanning machines on Election Day.

Another factor is whether states count absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but arrive later. In 2016 in Washington, which uses entirely mail-in ballots, 31.3 percent of votes were counted after Election Day. In Oregon, which also is a vote-by-mail state, that figure was just 6.0 percent. Why? Washington allows ballots to be counted if they are received five days after Election Day, while in Oregon, ballots must be received by Election Day.

Those states are not likely to tip the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and historically some of the biggest post-Election Day shifts have not, either. The single biggest shift the researchers found for any state in the 1948-2016 time period was a 6.9 percentage point shift for George Wallace in his home state of Alabama in 1968, but Nixon won the state anyway.

Still, in a few places, a relatively small shift could change the state and national results.

“When you do the math, you’re not talking about big [numbers of] votes,” Stewart says. “It’s going to be outcome-determinative only under a narrow range of conditions. It’s a game of inches.”



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Lindsey Graham under fire after calling segregation the ‘good old days’

‘He’s completely out of touch with the South Carolina of today.’

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham referred to segregation as “the good old days” during Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Graham, who is up for re-election this year, later told reporters that the comment was nothing more than “deep sarcasm,” but he’s still catching heat over it. His Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, who is Black, added his voice to the chorus of critics who were quick to call out the South Carolina lawmaker on social media, New York Times reports. 

“The good old days for who, Senator?” Harrison tweeted, along with a video clip of Graham’s comment. “It’s 2020, not 1920. Act like it.”

Read More: Lindsey Graham photographed with leader of white nationalist group Proud Boys

Guy King, a spokesperson for Harrison’s campaign, said Graham’s comments confirm that he’s “out of touch.”

“Yet again, Lindsey Graham has proven that he’s completely out of touch with the South Carolina of today,” King tells Newsweek. “Even as peaceful protestors demonstrate across our state for equality and justice, Lindsey can’t help but refer fondly to a time of violent oppression and segregation against African Americans. It’s time for new leadership that is reflective of the New South, that is bold, inclusive and diverse. Lindsey Graham has lost his moral compass.”

As part of the Senate’s hearing on Oct. 14 to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court, Graham referred to segregation as the “good old’ days” in an attempt to squash concerns about her questionable record on cases involving race. 

“You’re not aware of any effort to go back to the good old days of segregation by a legislative body, is that correct?” Graham asked, to which Barrett agreed.

Social media users wasted no time putting the Senator on blast for his poor choice of words. Barrett is also receiving the side-eye for not getting Graham right together over his language.

Twitter user Laura Martin noted that Barrett is “raising Black kids,” and that “she didn’t even flinch or correct Graham for referring to segregation as the “good ol days,”” she wrote. Adding, “Also, notice she has no problem saying her opinion on Brown. She spent much of yesterday refusing to do the same for cases involving marriage and abortion.” 

Read More: Amy Coney Barrett ruled n-word use does not make a workplace hostile

After the hearing, Graham made clear that he sarcastically suggested that “some legislative body would want to yearn for the “good ol’ days of segregation,”‘ he told reporters

“The point that I’m trying to make is there is nobody in America in the legislative arena, wanting to take us back to that dark period in American history,” he continued. “And for my opponent to suggest that says far more about him than me.’

“And in terms of that statement … it blows my mind that any rational person can believe that about me,” Graham added.   

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Brother of Chadwick Boseman reveals own cancer battle, in remission

‘Tomorrow is not promised and early detection saves lives.’

Kevin Boseman, brother of late actor Chadwick Boseman, shared on his Instagram story that Oct. 14 marks his two year anniversary being cancer free.

Boseman revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and underwent four rounds of chemotherapy. The actor/writer said he initially shared the diagnosis with only a select few people because of “boundaries.”

“I wanted to share because while it’s been a year of profound loss and tragedy for so many of us, this is good news. Something to smile about. Something to shout about,” Boseman said about being in remission.

Read More: Spike Lee says he understands why Chadwick Boseman didn’t tell him about illness

“I hope you’re smiling and shouting with me,” he added. “Cancer is something most of us have no control over. We can only control our responses to it, which includes being proactive about our healthcare both physically and mental.” 

Instagram

Boseman also encouraged his followers to go get checked if something doesn’t feel right.

“Tomorrow is not promised and early detection saves lives,” he said, concluding with: “Health is wealth. True wealth.”

Boseman’s remission celebration comes less than two months after Chadwick died from colon cancer at age 43. 

“A lot of people think making it means becoming an A-list movie star,” Kevin told The New York Times early this month. “I didn’t force that. I just knew that if Chad wanted to work in the arts, he would find a way and take care of himself.”

Read More: Chadwick Boseman could be a posthumous Oscar nominee

Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Boseman/Getty Images

Chadwick was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016 and still went on to play the lead in one of the biggest films in history, Black Panther. He also portrayed James Brown in Get On Up, Jackie Robinson in 42, and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall.  

His last film appearance is in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom debuting on Netflix Dec. 18.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is set during an intense recording session 1920’s Chicago as Ma Rainey battles her manager and producer and an ambitious trumpeter, played by Boseman, over control of her music. The film also stars Viola Davis in the title role and is based on the August Wilson play. theGRIO previously reported, early buzz says Boseman gives a stellar performance and could be an Oscar contender for either the lead or supporting actor category.

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Guinea elections: The 82-year-old seeking six more years

Alpha Condé, who spent years in opposition, is seeking a controversial third term.

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Why Africa's animation scene is booming

While the film sector struggles to produce new content, the global demand for animation has soared.

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Billionaire Robert Smith reaches $140 million tax settlement with DOJ

The businessman allegedly failed to pay taxes on about $200 million in assets.

Billionaire Robert Smith has reached a $140 million settlement with the DOJ as part of a four-year criminal tax investigation. 

Smith, who famously pledged to pay off the debt of Morehouse College students last year, must also acknowledge misconduct related to tax crimes and assets held in offshore tax structures.

theGRIO previously reported, Smith allegedly failed to pay taxes on about $200 million in assets that moved through offshore accounts tied to Robert Brockman, a Houston software businessman. 

Brockman reportedly gave Smith $1 billion in 2000 to start his equity firm, funds that originated from a charitable trust based in Bermuda.

Read More: Did Robert F. Smith use Black America?

Smith has reportedly been on the radar of the IRS since 2014, Bloomberg reported. That year, the billionaire reportedly approached the federal agency seeking amnesty from prosecution under a program to Americans who did not report offshore assets. The IRS, however, declined Smith’s request. The agency reportedly turns down taxpayers if it already knew they had not reported offshore accounts.

In September 2019, Smith’s Vista Equity Partners was hit with a lawsuit that accused it of self-dealing, according to the New York Post. Kurt Lauk, a former executive at Audi, claimed he got booted from the board at the automotive software firm Solera Holdings when he brought up the concern. The suit accused Vista of using Solera as a “personal piggy bank” to bail out the firm’s failed investments in other companies. The suit also accused Vista of misleading its investors, to which Smith and the firm denied.

Read More: Billionaire Robert Smith investigated by feds for possible criminal charges

Smith cooperated with the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service criminal tax investigation to avoid prosecution. A conviction would have forced him out of his Vista Equity Partners management firm, $65 million fine and a prison sentence.

Robert F Smith thegrio.com
Robert F. Smith (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights )

As part of the settlement, he must admit that he failed to pay about $30 million in taxes, with penalties and interest accounting for the expected $140 million payout, per Bloomberg.

Smith’s tax woes began after he allegedly failed to file proper reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the report states

The businessman and entrepreneur is the wealthiest Black person in America, with a reported net worth of $7 billion.

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Mekhi Phifer shares why he’s giving back to teachers and which classic film role he’d revisit

The actor is giving back to teachers in a big way with the help of a major corporation

Mekhi Phifer has portrayed a myriad of memorable roles since he hit our screens in 1995 in Spike Lee’s Clockers. It was the first role that he landed after his first big audition.

Fast forward 25 years later and Phifer has solidified his spot in Hollywood in both film and television and has worked alongside some of the greats. He spoke with theGrio about which role he would play again, which acting veteran gave him advice that he still follows today and why he decided to give back to teachers during the pandemic.

Read More: NYC cancels $900M payment to teachers due to financial crisis

Phifer lives a quiet life out of the spotlight and that is how he prefers it. Even in a social media-obsessed world, he’s managed to dodge the blogs and mostly stay out of the headlines for things other than acting. He says that’s because he moves strategically. Phifer will admit he’s friends with fellow Hollywood heartthrobs Omar Epps and Morris Chestnut and they hang out at each other’s houses from time to time, but there is one place he says you will never spot him.

“You aren’t going to find me out at the club, at the 40/40 or something like that,” said Phifer with a cackle by phone from Los Angeles. He did accept an invitation to a dinner at Quincy Jones’ home, though, and Oscar-winning icon Sidney Poitier was there to offer him advice he still follows.

“He said to me, ‘they won’t pay to see your movies on Saturday if they see you at the club on Friday.’”

Phifer has easily played some fan favorites. So when we asked which one of them he would revive, it was no surprise when he said, “I would definitely bring back Mitch.”

Mitch or “money-making Mitch” as he was affectionately called was the character Phifer played in the classic movie, Paid in Full. The movie was based on the real-life story of ’80s drug dealers in Harlem. The actor says strangers still approach him as Mitch.

Mekhi Phifer, Wood Harris and Cam’ron in ‘Paid in Full’

Read More: Mekhi Phifer recalls being love interest in Brandy & Monica’s ‘The Boy is Mine’

But despite all of the talent he’s had the privilege to work with, Phifer says the person who had the biggest impact in his life was the one he knows best offscreen.

“My mother was a teacher and to this day people will stop me and say, ‘hey your mother, Ms. Phifer was one of my favorite teachers,’” he said.

The actor grew up with his mother, Rhoda Phifer, in Harlem, New York. He says he was ahead of his friends academically when he was younger because she instilled in him the importance of education and made sure his learning didn’t stop outside of the classroom. Today he passes along those values to his 12-year-old son and is dedicated to giving back to teachers.

The actor is collaborating with Nutri-Grain to help educators who teach K-12th grades by providing them with snacks for their students. According to NEA.org, 94% of teachers spend money out of their own pockets to provide resources for their students, including snacks.

“The company is giving away a million bars,” says Phifer. “That is incredible because teachers are the real superheroes.”

Current K-12 teachers who would like to submit to win a “Got Your Back” bin filled with Nutri-Grain bars, click here.

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Florida couple say they faced discrimination in home appraisal due to wife’s race

Florida couple Abena and Alex Horton got more value for their home when an appraiser thought only a white family lived there

A couple in Florida claims they faced discrimination in having their home appraised.

As reported by theGrio, when Abena and Alex Horton attempted to refinance their Jacksonville, Florida home last June, they found out just how racial disparities play out in homeownership. In their case, the discrimination was made obvious because Abena is Black and her husband is white.

The Hortons are being profiled on ABC’s Nightline, hosted by Diane Sawyer to discuss what happened to them when an appraiser came out to value their home so they could ultimately pay off their mortgage early.

Read More: Ice Cube gets dragged for working with Trump administration on ‘Platinum Plan’

Florida couple Horton housing thegrio.com
Abena and Alex Horton (Credit: ABC News)

Their home is filled with pictures of their family, including their 6-year-old son. A bookshelf with books by Black authors and African American anthologies is prominently displayed.

Horton, who is an attorney, met with their appraiser in the four-bedroom, four-bathroom ranch-style home she shared with her husband, a painter. The Hortons thought the appraised price of their property was “shockingly low,” compared to comparable others in the area. Even the bank was surprised.

“It clicked in my mind almost immediately that I understand what the issue was here,” Abena said.

She added that her reaction was a “a big eye roll.”

“This person is being so petty and hateful, and he’s wasting my time,” she said. “Why did I let myself forget that I live in America as a Black person and that I need to take some extra steps to get a fair result.”

Horton decided to take matters into her own hands and conduct an experiment. She requested a second appraisal but this time, her husband would be the only one at home, and only photos of her husband and his white family members were visible.

Read More: George Floyd’s sister makes impassioned plea to vote for Biden in campaign ad

It was “crushing” to her spirit and she felt “ashamed of the fact that my son will see that this is something that I did.”

“I’m ashamed to say that I really wanted to refinance and pay off my house sooner and have full equity in my home, and so I was willing to put up with that indignity to do it because I knew it was going to be effective,” she said. “So it was a combination of pragmatism and deep and profound sadness.”

Horton’s instincts proved correct and in the second appraisal, the home’s value increased by 40%, or another $100,000. Abena was relieved by the more favorable appraisal at first but then the tears flowed.

“Because we realize just how much more removing that variable increased the value of our home… To know just how much, me personally, I was devaluing the home just by sitting in it. Just by living my life. Just by paying my mortgage. Just by raising my son there. How much [the first appraiser] felt that that devalued my house, devalued the neighborhood,” she added.

Horton shared what she went through in a viral Facebook post that led others to share similar experiences of discrimination.

Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that research shows that Black neighborhoods are devalued by 23%. He gave an estimate of $156 billion lost in equity.

“That discrimination is leading to a widening of the wealth gap,” he said, “and so one can argue that we’re in worse shape than we were 20, 30, 40 years ago.”

Watch the full story on Nightline tonight at 12 a.m. ET on ABC

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Missouri lawyer couple who pointed guns at protesters gave out autographed photos

The McCloskeys, who have been indicted for pointing guns at protesters this summer, are handing out autographed photos of the incident

The Missouri lawyer couple who pointed their guns at protesters outside their home has been indicted, but apparently, they’re not too worried about the consequences. A patron at a Missouri restaurant says Mark and Patricia McCloskey handed her server an autographed photo of the incident captioned with ‘Still Standing.’

As reported by theGrio, the McCloskeys went viral in June after brandishing guns when supporters of BLM walked through their suburban St. Louis neighborhood to advocate for the resignation of St. Louis mayor Lyda Krewson. Krewson earned the ire of protesters by reading the names and addresses of people who supported defunding police departments in a Facebook Live.

Read More: Amy Cooper falsely claimed Chris Cooper ‘tried to assault’ her, prosecutors say

Mark and Patricia McCloskey (Screenshot from viral video)

The McCloskeys are prominent St. Louis lawyers who were recorded brandishing a handgun and a rifle when protesters walked through the gated community in Portland Place where Krewson also lived. The two were not approached by protestors in the video.

Still, the couple says they felt “threatened” and claim that their home would have been burned down had they not made the armed stand. A Missouri prosecutor disagreed, charging the couple with unlawful possession of a weapon, and just a week ago, on new charges of evidence tampering. They have pleaded not guilty on both charges.

Hailed by conservatives and invited to speak at the Republican National Convention, the McCloskeys are seemingly reveling in their newfound fame. A patron at the Original Pancake House in Ladue, Missouri told Missouri’s KMOV 4 News that the server was a surprised as anyone else to get handed the postcard by the couple.

“We were having breakfast and I noticed all this commotion around the table when they had left. The server was like ‘Oh my God, look what they left me,” diner Andrea Spencer told the outlet. “I saw it and thought ‘Oh my God.’ It was just flabbergasting think that you’re capitalizing on these 15 minutes of shame that you have, and to publicize it on a postcard. I thought it was strange.”

Al Watkins, an attorney who represents the couple, says they are often asked for autographs and created the postcards to facilitate those requests.

Spencer posted a photo of the postcard to her Facebook page.

Read More: Michigan man accused of fracturing Black teen’s jaw with lock: ‘Black lives don’t matter’

(Photo: Andrea Spencer)

The McCloskeys may find themselves in even more legal trouble. The photographer who snapped the viral pic told KMOV that the McCloskeys do not have permission to disseminate the photo. Ironically, the McCloskeys, who have a lengthy history of suing others, including alleged “trespassers,” once sued the Central West End Association for including a picture of their home in a brochure.

The nine protesters who entered the Portland Place community were initially given trespassing tickets but were not charged in the demonstration in Portland Place, reports Law and Crime. The McCloskeys say that’s unfair given their right to “protect” their property.

Witnesses may be more likely to come forward in the case now that they know they are not being charged, reports KMOV. Those witnesses were referred to just by their initials, given how public the case has become.

“Given the international attention this matter has generated,” a prosecutor said in court documents, “and the violence and vitriol directed towards the Circuit Attorney’s office for the prosecution of this case, the witnesses were understandably reluctant to cooperate.”

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Preflight Covid-19 testing is on the rise — the question is whether it works

The airline industry hopes preflight testing will restore passenger confidence and reopen borders. Medical experts aren't as convinced that one test is enough.

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Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Internet Freedom Has Taken a Hit During the Covid-19 Pandemic

From arrests to surveillance, governments are using the novel coronavirus as cover for a crackdown on digital liberty.

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Kerry Washington says Black people are ‘seduced into voting conservative’

‘They’ll vote against their own best interests.’

Kerry Washington has a theory about why so many Black people are riding the Trump-train all the way to the voting polls on Nov. 3. 

The actress believes there’s a reason why some Black voters “are seduced into voting conservative,” even if it means voting “against their own best interests.”

“I know from being on the campaign trail in ’08, and ’12, and now, how many Black folks are seduced into voting conservative, because of their feelings about gay marriage. They’ll vote against their own best interests on all these other areas, because of these ideas,” Washington explains in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter

Read More: Kerry Washington joins leaders to launch $10 million racial justice initiative

Washington shares details with the publication about her upcoming Netflix movie The Prom, in which she plays a homophobic, conservative PTA president.

Washington hopes the character pushes “audiences to expand their idea of who they think conservatives are,” and also “hold up a mirror to folks of color in this country to say, ‘How are you treating your own children? Do you have the courage to truly love your children unconditionally?’ Because it’s a huge issue in communities of color,” she says.

Read More: Michelle Obama pleads with voters to ‘search your hearts,’ choose Biden

The Ryan Murphy film is an adaptation of the Tony-nominated musical, starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden and Keegan Michael-Key. According to the synopsis, the story centers on self-obsessed theater stars who “swarm into a small conservative Indiana town in support of a high school girl who wants to take her girlfriend to the prom,” per IMDB.com.

Democrats Hold Unprecedented Virtual Convention From Milwaukee
In this screenshot from the DNCC’s livestream of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, actress and activist Kerry Washington addresses the virtual convention on August 19, 2020. (Photo by DNCC via Getty Images)

Washington’s character objects to gay students at prom. In her THR interview, the actress compares homosexuality in the Black community to her own mother’s concens about her pursuing an acting career.

“[My mom] was like, ‘Your life is already going to be so hard as a Black woman, do you really want to be a starving artist? Do you want to layer that on top of your struggles?’ I think that’s how a lot of parents of color of LGBTQ kids feel, like, ‘Honestly, you’re Black and a woman and now you want to love other women too, like really?’”

At the 2020 Golden Globes, Washington gushed to ET about The Prom and finally getting a chance to work with Murphy.

“I play a complex character,” she said. “There’s a little bit of a dark side to her, so I’m into it.”

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Eli Lilly halts COVID-19 treatment citing safety concerns

Health experts have noted that large clinical trials are usually paused when side effects occur.

Drugmaker Eli Lilly said Tuesday that it is pausing its clinical trial of an antibody treatment for COVID-19 due a safety concern. 

“Safety is of the utmost importance to Lilly. We are aware that, out of an abundance of caution, the ACTIV-3 independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) has recommended a pause in enrollment,” Eli Lilly spokeswoman Molly McCully in a statement, The Hill reports.

Health experts have noted that large clinical trials are usually paused when side effects occur. British drugmaker AstraZeneca recently pumped the brakes on its vaccine trial after a patient fell ill.

Read More: Trump says he feels ‘powerful’ after COVID-19, will ‘kiss’ his supporters

An AstraZeneca spokesperson described the pause as “a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”

Eli Lilly’s drug is known as a monoclonal antibody – which is a synthetic version of the antibodies produced by a patient who recovered from the potentially fatal coronavirus, per U.S. News and World Report.

President Donald Trump praised a similar drug made by Regeneron, which he was given following his alleged COVID-19 diagnosis.

Eli Lilly’s latest development follows news that Johnson & Johnson paused its vaccine trial “due to an unexplained illness in a study participant,” CNN reports.

Read More: Johnson & Johnson pauses COVID-19 vaccine trial due to unexplained illness

“Following our guidelines, the participant’s illness is being reviewed and evaluated by the ENSEMBLE independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) as well as our internal clinical and safety physicians,” the drug and pharmaceutical company said in a statement of the study, which is named ENSEMBLE “Adverse events — illnesses, accidents, etc. — even those that are serious, are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies.” 

Eli Lilly has not announced how long the pause might last. 

“The trial, evaluating Lilly’s investigational neutralizing antibody as a treatment for COVID-19 in hospitalized patients, is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lilly is supportive of the decision by the independent DSMB to cautiously ensure the safety of the patients participating in this study,” the company said in the statement.

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Michigan man accused of fracturing Black teen’s jaw with lock: ‘Black lives don’t matter’

Lee James Mouat, who allegedly hurled the N-word, faces the possibility of 10 years in prison on a federal hate charge

A Michigan man is facing a federal hate charge after allegedly fracturing a Black teen’s jaw with a lock and declaring that “Black lives don’t matter.”

Lee James Mouat, 42, is alleged to have hit a Black teen with a bike lock which not only fractured his teeth but broke his jaw, Buzzfeed reports. The 18-year-old has only been identified as D.F.

Read More: NFL icon Herschel Walker says Black people are not oppressed, slams celebs who say otherwise

A criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan declared that Mouat was charged on Tuesday with one count of willfully causing bodily injury to the victim because of his race. The incident in question took place on June 6 when Mouat approached the teenager and his friends who are also Black in a parking lot at William C. Sterling State Park in Monroe, per the affidavit.

Michigan Man Mouat Black hate crime thegrio.com
Sterling State Park in Monroe (Credit: Matt Taylor/Flickr/Creative Commons / Via Flickr: matt_devicious)

Mouat is accused of hurling racial slurs and told the group of Black teenagers that they had no right to use the public beach. The teenagers had just emerged from a swim.

“N**gers don’t belong on this beach,” Mouat yelled, according to the victim, before “walking quickly towards him” and striking him in the face with a “chain bike-lock,” the documents said.

The teen was hospitalized and treated for his injuries that included the loss of several teeth and a broken jaw. Witnesses claimed that Mouat also repeatedly used the N-word.

“These n**gers are playing gang music” and “I’ll bash their heads in if they don’t turn [their music] down,” Mouat said according to the affidavit.

Read More: Ohio woman calls police on Black man loading groceries into his own car

Michigan Man Mouat Black hate crime thegrio.com
Lee James Mouat (Credit: Monroe County Jail)

He also made reference to the Black Lives Matter movement. After the death of George Floyd in May, protests swept the country with the demand for police reform and affirming the lives of Black people. Mouat felt differently.

“Black lives don’t matter,” he yelled before striking the teen.

Mouat was initially arrested after the incident and charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, felonious assault, and ethnic intimidation, Monore News reported. He is currently still in the custody of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and being held on a $100,000 bond.

Federal prosecutors stated that Mouat faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted on the hate crime charges.


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Nick Cannon has tense interview with white nationalist Richard Spencer

‘The self-proclaimed alt-right leader praised Christopher Columbus and mocked the Haitian revolution.

For the latest episode of his Cannon’s Class podcast, Nick Cannon welcomed controversial white nationlaist Richard Spencer for a conversation about Christopher Columbus and national holiday dedicated to the Italian explorer. 

While Spencer defended the celebration of Columbus Day, Cannon made clear, “I still don’t understand why there’s a holiday.”

“Because he’s amazing,” answered Spencer.  Watch their moment via the Instagram video below.

Read More: Nick Cannon, ViacomCBS may reconcile professional relationship: report

Spencer made headlines in 2017 when he joined the alt-right protest over the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, theGRIO previously reported. He also led the torchlit march that set off a weekend of violence during the “Unite the Right” rally, which led to the death of Heather Heyer. At the time, he was caught on audio allegedly spewing racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric during a meeting, per Mediaite.

Read More: Nick Cannon reportedly suing ViacomCBS for $1.5B over rights to ‘Wild ‘n Out’

It was later reported that Spencer, the self-proclaimed alt-right leader, had been banned from dozens of European nations. 

During his conversation this week with Cannon, Spencer praised Christopher Columbus and mocked the Haitian revolution. 

When the former Wild ‘n Out host noted that “Christopher Columbus is a bedtime story,” Spencer fired back with, “Well, so is the Haitian revolution. They were killing women and children.”

Cannon defended the Haitians before explaining that “nobody was f*cking with” Christopher Columbus. 

“He came and started f*cking with people. People were enjoying themselves and he brought famine, disease and just raped and pillaged everything,” Cannon added. “So why would you guys want to protect statues of losers who were clearly on the wrong side of history?” he asked.

“Because they were great,” said Spencer.  

“Great losers!,” Cannon replied. 

Cannon took to social media to describe his conversation with Spencer as “intriguing.” 

Cannon is now catching heat for giving Spencer a platform.

“Nick Cannon: I’m sorry, I’m not antisemitic I don’t hate Jews, really!” Stop Antisemitism.org tweeted. “Also Nick Cannon: let’s host Neo Nazi Richard Spencer and piss off some more Jews.”

Cannon and Spencer’s candid discussion comes less than two months after the former America’s Got Talent host was termination by ViacomCBS and his hit variety show Wild ‘n Out was cancelled over alleged anti-Semitic remarks he made on his podcast. Cannon responded by suing the company for $1.5B, the estimated value of his show.

 “It is just that simple, Wild ’n Out belongs to Nick!” Cannon’s team said in a statement. “The show was created by Nick Cannon with his idea and original thought. Wild ’n Out has brought billions of dollars in revenue to Viacom since 2015. And Nick deserves and has earned everything it is worth.”

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NFL icon Herschel Walker says Black people are not oppressed, slams celebs who say otherwise

Herschel Walker also encouraged people to vote for Donald Trump in the presidential election

NFL legend Herschel Walker isn’t shy about expressing his views and is now criticizing other celebrities who claim Black people are oppressed.

Walker took to social media on Monday to refute the narrative that the United States was no place for Black people, much less that they were “oppressed” in a video uploaded to Twitter. He tagged President Donald Trump, civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, Fox News, ESPN, and others.

Read More: New book reveals Malcolm X secretly met the KKK to discuss setting up a ‘separate state’ for Black Americans

“We’re not oppressed we’re BLESSED in the USA!! The American Dream is the envy of all other countries …vote to keep our Freedom,” the former NFL running back and Heisman Trophy winner captioned the video.

Walker, 58, cited his experience competing in the Olympics as a member of the US bobsleigh team in 1992. He ultimately finished in seventh place in the Games but called his participation an honor.

“I started thinking this poor Black kid from South Georgia got a chance to represent the United States of America,” he said.

“I’ve been hearing from a lot of people saying, ‘we’re oppressed.’ Well I’m here to tell you, you’re not.”

Walker, a prominent Black Republican, took offense to celebrities who believe the color of their skin has held them back.

“So, all the entertainers, all the athletes out there that are telling these people we African Americans are oppressed, well, we’re not. We can do whatever we want to do,” he said.

“Being at the Olympics, I saw so many other countries had envy of the United States of America.”

Walker also used the video to encourage his followers to vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election on Nov. 3.

Read More: Yandy Smith-Harris discusses activism, the election and her career

President Donald Trump hosts the White House Sports and Fitness Day
US President Donald Trump (Center-R), Herschel Walker (Center-L), Mariano Rivera (R), and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, walk as they watch young participants during the White House Sports and Fitness Day on the South Lawn on May 30, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images)

‘We’re the greatest country in the world so remember when you go to that voting booth, remember the American way. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, so many freedoms that we have,” the Hall of Famer said.

“So, vote for Donald Trump. Vote for a Republican. Because I’m telling you, let’s not throw our country away. Let’s vote for those freedoms we have in the United States of America.”

This is not the first time that Walker has spoken on behalf of Trump whom he’s known since 1984. In August, he appeared at the Republican National Convention and spoke on the opening night. Walker declared it “hurt his soul” to hear others depict Trump as a racist.

“I take that as a personal insult, that people would think I’ve had a 37-year friendship with a racist,” he said in his three-minute speech. “People don’t know what they’re talking about. Growing up in the deep South, I’ve seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn’t Donald Trump,” Walker said.


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California orders GOP to remove unofficial ballot boxes

Republicans refused, saying they are taking advantage of the state’s liberal ballot collection law that allows anyone to collect ballots from voters and deliver them to county election offices.

California’s chief elections official on Monday ordered Republicans to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from churches, gun shops and other locations and Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned those behind the “vote tampering” could face prosecution.

Republicans refused, saying they are taking advantage of California’s liberal ballot collection law that allows anyone to collect ballots from voters and deliver them to county election offices.

“As of right now, we’re going to continue our ballot harvesting program,” California Republican Party spokesman Hector Barajas said.

Read More: California officials say GOP illegally installed ballot drop-off boxes

California attorney general Xavier Becerra (R) speaks as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (L). (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Due to the coronavirus and concerns about health safety at polling places, California for the first time mailed ballots for the Nov. 3 election to all active registered voters — more than 21 million people. The ballots come with pre-paid envelopes for voters to mail back, free of charge.

State law also allows county election officers to set up drop boxes throughout the county where people can drop off their ballots in person. The secure boxes can sometimes weigh more than 600 pounds and are monitored frequently by local election officials.

Republicans have set up their drop boxes at churches, gas stations and gun shops in at least three California counties. Some are identified as “secure ballot dropoff location,” while others say “approved and bought by the GOP.”

The party declined to say precisely how many boxes have been distributed and where they all have been placed.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat, said state law only allows county election officials to set up official ballot drop boxes, with rules for how often the ballots are retrieved. He said these unofficial drop boxes lack those protections, making them vulnerable to tampering.

Read More: Mail-in ballots from Black NC voters rejected 4 times rate of white voters

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla speaks during a press conference held at the Democratic National Headquarters on July 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. The news conference was held “to explain why the Trump administration’s voter fraud commission was set up from the start to mislead the public and the steps that Democrats will take to fight back. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Padilla had his chief legal counsel send Republicans a letter on Monday ordering them to remove those boxes by Thursday. He also ordered them to provide the state with the names, addresses and birthdays of all voters who have already dropped off ballots.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra, also a Democrat, went further, threatening to prosecute “anyone who knowingly engages in the tampering or misuse of a vote.”

“We hope that the message goes out loud and clear to anyone who is trying to improperly solicit, obtain, and manage a citizen’s vote that they are subject to prosecution,” Becerra said. “I’m trying to be careful with how I say this, but the reports we are hearing are disturbing.”

Padilla declined to speculate on why Republicans would be collecting votes via unofficial drop boxes.

Read More: Californians to vote on racial, gender preference programs

“Our interest is in protecting the integrity of this election,” he said.

Barajas said the party’s drop boxes just provide voters with “another opportunity” to cast their ballots.

In a news release, the California Republican Party said state law does not specifically ban them from collecting ballots in a box. They say the law only prevents tampering or forging ballots and that people collecting the ballots cannot be paid for doing it.

“It appears Republicans are well within their right to collect ballots in this manner. It’s just that Democrats don’t like it,” Republican state Sen. Melissa Melendez posted to her official Twitter account.

The controversy surfaced during the weekend after state election officials received reports of the boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange counties, all areas with highly competitive U.S. House races. Democrats have blasted the use of the unofficial boxes and say they fear Republicans could use them to gather and discard ballots.

In California, state law says voters who can’t return their ballots themselves can ask anyone else to do it for them. Previously, people who returned a ballot for someone else also had to sign it and list their relationship to the voter. But a separate law passed in 2018 eliminated that requirement.

In Orange County, which is home to 3 million people between Los Angeles and San Diego, a regional field director for the state GOP posed for a photo with one of the boxes. The image posted to social media showed him wearing a face covering supporting the congressional campaign of Michelle Steel, a Republican county supervisor.

Steel is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Harley Rouda for his seat representing a coastal district. Rouda flipped the seat two years ago from longtime Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.

Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said official drop boxes are clearly recognizable and carry official county elections logo. He said it wasn’t clear how many voters had used unofficial boxes but after receiving reports about them, he notified the state and district attorney’s office, which is investigating.

Rachel Potucek, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Orange County, said she didn’t know what Republicans planned to do with the ballots they collected and worried they could target Democratic areas with boxes to suppress votes.

There also were reports of GOP drop boxes at a church in the Los Angeles County community of Castaic and at various locations in Fresno County in California’s farm-rich Central Valley.

Fresno County Republicans said they will remove the boxes and ballots will be turned in to county election officials, which was always the plan, the Sacramento Bee reported.

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